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What happened in Jerusalem?

Another terrorist attack occurred few days ago in a volatile region of the world, this time it is in Jerusalem. Those killed in the bus explosion were civilians, no one could have known who would be on the bus, and will it be an Arab or an Israeli? What is their nationality? What is their religious or ethnic background? Will it be a man, woman, child, a scientist who serves his community or a doctor who saves people’s lives, or a workingman who is out to earn a living so that his family can survive? These are the questions that must be contemplated by those who sow the seeds of terror in every corner of the globe long before any bomb is set off. Both those who give the orders and those who follow them, they are in the same boat; they are enemies of humanity according to every religion and humanist ideal. Any sound logic, religion, or man-made law cannot accept killing innocent civilians. It is a heinous crime that taints the pleas of the oppressed and justifies the brutality inflicted by the oppressor upon those people. The Palestinian people are the most oppressed of all, a relentless war is waged against them, their land is occupied, their children are incarcerated in such a way that history has only seen once before, during the Nazi regime, and lately it has become acceptable for Israeli soldiers to murder Palestinians even after incarcerating them.

When we talk of terrorism in Jerusalem, we are concerned with two important subjects: Jerusalem and terrorism. Jerusalem has political, religious, and symbolic importance.

Jerusalem’s significance is not exclusive to the people of the Middle East. Jerusalem is a spiritual capital for all three Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism), and one need not spend too much time dwelling on this to recognize Jerusalem’s position within these traditions.

Jerusalem is a city that has witnessed, both in recent and more ancient times, an endless sequence of conflicts. Since 1967 Israel’s been occupying the city along with other cities and towns that were conquered during the ‘67 war. The 1967 territorial gains were one of the points of contention between the Soviet Union and the West led by the US, the other being the incessant conflict between Israel and its Arab and Muslim countries that is still ongoing to this day. Jerusalem is an important city for Muslims due to the presence of the Al-Aqsa mosque - the first qibla for Muslims. The Islamic people in their majority celebrate Quds day yearly on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. These mass marches admonish the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and call for resistance against the occupation. The Muslims believe unequivocally that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque will be liberated one day; their conviction’s source is the Quran.

The Israeli Knesset, on July 30th, passed a law that considers a united Jerusalem (Eastern part which was occupied in 1967 in addition to the western side that Israel had occupied ever since its inception in 1948) capital of Israel This was followed by a UN resolution that refuted Israeli claims and considered the city to be occupied according to UN resolutions. But Israel proceeded unhindered to set the basis for Jerusalem to be its capital; one of the things Israel did and still does is the settlement policy in Jerusalem and other Palestinian lands, which aims at forcing a demographic change.

As for terrorism in Jerusalem, it is a difficult matter, undoubtedly there is a policy of apartheid against the Palestinians that live in Jerusalem and elsewhere, nevertheless, no one can pinpoint the guilty party in this latest incident.

Are these groups linked to international syndicates or not? Is the perpetrator, by committing this act, serving the interests of the oppressor or the oppressed? The Palestinian people are resisting the occupation in public, but the Palestinian resistance targets Israeli soldiers, no one can accept the killing of innocent civilians, except for those organizations that have a murky past. These organizations tend to get their funding from certain forces that claim to be fighting terrorism but are secretly funding, arming, and training these groups so that they can profit from the chaos that they sow.

Terrorism has no home or enclave, it can operate anywhere in the world. It simply exploits the naivety of ignoramuses that were brought up and raised under the tutorship of regional and international forces, in order to use them to further their own cause and interests, without any second thought on the repercussions (or blow back, which is a CIA term) of funding terrorism. Recent history teaches us a lesson: we all recall how the US and its Saudi ally worked to create the phenomena we call Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Under the banner of Islam, every evil was assembled to fight against the Soviet forces under the pretext of jihad for the sake of Allah, when in reality it was jihad for the sake of the US empire. We are seeing today that all these terrorist groups are funded and armed by the same forces that supported the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Two regional forces have also joined the club moved by political Islam or Islamism and they are Turkey and Hamas. Each of the four sides is aiming to achieve some end and consciously or not forgets the interests of the normal folk, in that they yearn for peace and reject terrorism, which is nothing but blind murder.

The terrorist attack in Brussels is a prime example of the fact that those that attend Saudi Arabian financed mosques in Europe are taught the virtue of killing rather than love and forgiveness.

Recent investigations have shown that the attacks in Brussels were carried out by Muslim youth who were born and raised in Europe, and rather than being taught the virtues of tolerance that prevail in European societies, they are taught to kill by the takfiri ideology that Saudi Arabia spreads through these mosques in Europe.

I would not be exaggerating if I said that the US would not have been able to spread chaos throughout the globe if it weren’t for Saudi Arabia, which founded an ideological school that fed and continues to feed terrorism through its Wahhabi ideology, which calls all those who don’t adhere to their way of thinking to be apostates. Eradicating terrorism, especially one that conducts operations in the Middle East, Europe, Russia, and even the US, cannot be accomplished without first draining the swamp from which they sprang. Chief among them is the Wahhabi ideology and also the Muslim brotherhood brand of political Islam or Islamism that holds sway in Turkey.

All those who seek to impose their will by force on smaller and weaker nations encourage terrorists. Terrorism needs an ideology, and an ignoramus that thinks his money and military might are enough to achieve his goals without any repercussions. Fighting terrorism requires strict adherence to human values, and to be truthful to our faith in these values, and that oppression, however grand its resistance, requires adherence to these values. We do not kill children, women, or old men, we defend ourselves against those who oppress or try to kill us, or who steals our land.